Yusei Kikuchi

Yusei Kikuchi (菊池雄星)

Bats Left, Throws Left
Height 6' 0", Weight 194 lb.
High School Hanamaki Higashi High School
Debut March 21, 2019

Born June 17, 1991 in Morioka, Iwate Japan

Biographical Information[edit]

Yusei Kikuchi drew notice in 2009 when he was timed at 96 mph during the Koshien Tournament, a new record for a left-hander since the event began using the radar gun in 1980. He met with 8 major league teams and all 12 Nippon Pro Baseball clubs that winter, and considered skipping the NPB draft in order to make himself available to MLB teams but in the end decided against it and remained in Japan to begin his professional career. Six of the 12 NPB clubs named him #1 overall in the draft that year; the Seibu Lions won his rights. He debuted with the big club on June 12, 2011 with a rocky outing against the Hanshin Tigers (6 H, 4 ER in 2 1/3 IP). For the year, he went 4-1 with a 4.14 ERA for Seibu.

Kikuchi was 4-3 with a 3.10 ERA in 2012, and he pitched for the Melbourne Aces of the Australian Baseball League after the 2012 season; he had a 4.38 ERA in 5 starts. Kikuchi was dominant in the first half of the 2013 season, and he was selected into the 2013 NPB All-Star Game. He relieved Shohei Ohtani in the 6th inning of Game 1, and he gave up a walk to Tsuyoshi Nishioka. Kikuchi then retired Takashi Toritani, Wladimir Balentien and Shinnosuke Abe to end his work, and Toshiyuki Yanuki succeeded him. He ended up 9-4 with a 1.92 ERA in the 2013 season until his season ended due to left shoulder injury in August. Kikuchi would ranked 2nd in ERA in the Pacific League had he qualified (0.65 behind Masahiro Tanaka), and he led the league with 3 shutouts.

The young southpaw couldn't maintained his solid pitching in 2014, and he was 5-11 with a 3.54 ERA and a league-leading 78 walks. He went 9-10 in 2015, and he had a 12-7 record with a 2.52 ERA in 2016. Kikuchi was 2nd in ERA (.42 behind Ayumu Ishikawa), 4th in wins (tied with Kodai Senga) and 7th in strikeouts (between Brandon Dickson and Chihiro Kaneko). He had his career year in Japan in 2017, and he became the first Japanese southpaw to reach 158km/h on August 3. Kikuchi attended the 2017 NPB All-Star Game, and he relieved Senga in the 3rd inning of Game 1. He pitched 2 innings, struck out one and allowed a homer to Yoshi Tsutsugo. He ended up 16-6 with a 1.97 ERA, leading the league in wins, ERA, innings and shutout, and he was 2nd in strikeouts (5 behind Takahiro Norimoto). He won the Best Nine, Gold Glove and Most Valuable Battery Award (along with Ginjiro Sumitani).

The Seibu Lions advanced to the 2017 PLCS, and Kikuchi made his postseason debut on Game 1 of the stage 1. Kikuchi shutout the Rakuten Golden Eagles with 5 strikeouts, and his team scored 7 on Rakuten's ace Norimoto. However, the Golden Eagles won the next two games and eliminated the Lions. He got 242 points in the PL MVP Voting, between Nao Higashihama and Alfredo Despaigne). Kikuchi extended his elite pitching in 2018, having a 14-4 record with a 3.08 ERA and won the Best Nine again. He was 2nd in ERA (.36 behind Takayuki Kishi), 2nd in wins (2 behind Shinsaburo Tawata) and 4th in strikeouts (between Kishi and Naoyuki Uwasawa). He started in the 2018 NPB All-Star Game1, but he allowed 2 homers to Seiya Suzuki and Toshiro Miyazaki in 2 innings. In the 2018 PLCS, Kikuchi started in Game 1 of the final stage against the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks. However, he allowed 6 runs in 5 innings and Rick van den Hurk got the win over him. The Hawks beat the Lions in 5 games.

On November 5, 2018, Seibu announced its intention to place him on the posting system, with the 30-day period starting a month later, on December 5th. Late on December 31st, it was reported that he had agreed to a four-year deal with the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners had been proceeding with a fire sale during the off-season, trading away pricey veterans, but Kikuchi was seen as one of the younger players around whom the team planned to build for the future. They had of course a long history of having Japanese players be successful for them. A couple of days later, figures were released for the deal: it was worth $56 million for four years with a club option to extend it to seven years for a total of $109 million. This included a signing bonus of $6 million. As a result, the posting fee to be paid to Seibu by Seattle amounted to $10.275 million. On March 21, 2019, he became the first Japanese player to make his major league debut in Japan when he started the second contest of a season-opening two-game series against the Oakland Athletics at the Tokyo Dome. He gave up 1 run on 4 hits in 4 2/3 innings before giving way to Roenis Elias. The Mariners then indicated that they had devised a special plan to keep Kikuchi's innings down his first season: every fifth start or so, he would only the team's "opener", turning the ball over to a young pitcher called up from the minors after pitching the 1st inning. After struggling to a 5.56 ERA by mid-August, he had a tremendous outing on August 18th, when he pitched the first complete game and shutout of his career in defeating the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-0, on a two-hitter. He ended his rookie season at 6-11, 5.46 in 32 games, pitching 161 2/3 innings.

In 2020, he was limited to 9 starts by the shortened season resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. He lowered his ERA slightly, to 5.17 and his record was 2-4. One major improvement was in his strikeout rate, which rose from 116 in 161 2/3 innings, to 47 in 47 innings; his hit rate also improved significantly, from 10.9 per 9 innings to 7.9. On April 29, 2021, he flirted with a no-hitter in a start against the Houston Astros. He did not allow a hit until one out in the 7th, then completed the frame without further damage before leaving, on his way to a 1-0 win. This was the initial chapter of an excellent first half that saw him be invited to the All-Star Game for the first time. He went 7-9, 4.41 in 29 starts for the season, with 163 strikeouts in 157 innings, but his two halves were very different: 6-4, 3.48 before the break, and 1-5, 5.98 afterwards. This was especially problematic as the Mariners were in the running for a postseason spot until the last day of the season, but he contributed almost nothing down the stretch.

He became a free agent after the 2021 season, but was still unsigned when the lockout began. Only a couple of days after it was resolved, on March 12, 2022, news emerged that he had found a suitor, the Toronto Blue Jays, who were willing to bet $36 million over three years that the first-half Kikuchi was the real deal, and not the second-half one. Well, the Blue Jays got both: in April, he was terrible, going 0-1, 5.52 in 4 starts, then turned things completely around in May with a record of 2-0, 2.36 in 5 starts. But just when it looked like he had things under control, he collapsed completely in June, when he was 0-3, 9.39 in 5 starts. He failed to complete the 5th inning in any of these five starts, continually putting the bullpen under pressure. After giving up 5 runs in just 2 innings against the Milwaukee Brewers on June 25th, speculation was that he would not make his next start and would need to right himself while pitching in long relief for a spell. But he did make his next start on June 30th and, lo and behold, he was excellent, allowing just 1 run in 6 innings while striking out 8 against the Tampa Bay Rays. However, his improvement was short-lived. He was awful in the middle stretch of the season, putting up ERAs of 7.17, 6.14 and 7.27 from June to August. He made his last start on August 15th and pitched strictly in relief after that. At first, he was only used in low-leverage situations, but he did better as a reliever, going 2-0 with a 4.50 ERA in 8 September outings and even picking up his first career save on September 30th, pitching the final 3 innings of a 9-0 win over the Boston Red Sox. He finished the year at 6-7, 5.19 with the 1 save, with 124 strikeouts in 100 2/3 innings, but also 58 walks. He did not appear in the postseason.

Heading into 2023, the Blue Jays weren't sure what to expect from Kikuchi: the stuff was there, as reflected by his strikeout rate the previous season, but not the results. He surprised everyone with an excellent spring, putting up an ERA of 1.00 through his first six Grapefruit League starts and confirming that he would be the team's fifth starter at the start of the regular season. He had a very good season, never having to relinquish his job as the team's fifth starter. He completed the year with an important win over the Tampa Bay Rays on September 29th in which he pitched 5 innings in an 11-4 win that put Toronto within a hair's breadth of the postseason with two games remaining. For the season, he went 11-6, 3.86 in 32 games, setting personal bests for wins, innings pitched (167 2/3) and strikeouts (181). Even though he pitched 67 more innings than in 2022, he allowed 10 fewer walks, 48 to 58, in what was a key to his improvement. In the postseason, it was at the center of a controversial move by manager John Schneider in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series against the Minnesota Twins on October 4th. José Berríos had started the game, and was cruising along, having allowed no runs during the first three innings when he walked the lead-off batter in the 4th, Royce Lewis, who had been the Twins most dangerous hitter thus far. That's when Schneider brought in Kikuchi, hoping to catch the Twins wrong-footed as their line-up was lefthanded-heavy. However, Kikuchi had not pitched out of the bullpen all season, and it took him a few batters to find his groove, by which time Max Kepler had singled, Donovan Solano had drawn a walk to load the bases, and Carlos Correa singled to drive in a first run. Kikuchi then got Willi Castro to ground into a double play, but Kepler scored on the play. Those two runs were all that Minnesota needed, as they won the game, 2-0. The move was widely panned after the game.

In 2024, Kikuchi pitched fairly well for the Blue Jays over the first half, but had little to show for it as he was continually victim of poor offensive support. Until the end of May, he made 11 starts with an ERA of 3.25 but was only 2-4 due to poor run support. The strain of always having to be perfect to have a chance to win got to him, and he was regularly pounded by opponents after posting back-to-back wins on June 6th and June 11th. He lost his next three starts while allowing 13 runs in 11 innings, then ran off a string of no-decisions as he mainly pitched well enough to win, but the Jays' bats stayed quiet. Meanwhile, the team was sinking in the standings and his name was at the center of all sorts of trade rumors, as his contract was expiring at the end of the season, and it made little sense for the Jays to keep him on board when they were no longer a contender. He was 4-9, 4.75 in 22 starts when the trade was announced on July 29th. He headed to the Houston Astros in return for three prospects: P Jake Bloss, OF Joey Loperfido and IF Will Wagner - a very good return for a rental player. He made his first start for Houston on August 2nd against the Tampa Bay Rays; it didn't start off too well as the first two batters he faced, Yandy Diaz and Dylan Carlson hit a double and homer respectively to put him in an early 2-0 hole, but he gave up just one more hit in 5 2/3 innings, while striking out 11, including a team record-tying eight consecutively at one point. The Astros came back to win the game, 3-2, although the win went to reliever Bryan Abreu. He became a sort of good-luck charm for the Astros as they were undefeated in his first 8 starts for the team, while he personally went 5-0. Overall, he was 5-1, 2.70 in 10 starts for Houston, for an overall record of 9-10, 4.05 in 32 starts and 175 2/3 innings. He would have started Game 3 of the Wild Card Series against the Detroit Tigers, but Houston lost the first two games to be eliminated from the postseason before he could take the mound.

On November 25, 2024, various sources reported that he had come to an agreement with the Los Angeles Angels on a three-year contract worth $63 million.

When Yusei was in high school and pondering his future, his coach was Hiroshi Sasaki, who at the time had a three-year old son named Rintaro Sasaki. Yusei often baby-sat him and considered the youngster a little brother - a little brother who grew up to be the most sought-after amateur player in Japan in 2024, and one who chose to do what Yusei had pondered but decided against, i.e. to go directly to the U.S. without first signing with a Japanese professional team. Yusei said Rintaro had sought his advice before making his decision.

Notable Achievements[edit]

AL All-Star (2021)
200 Strikeouts Seasons: 1 (2024)

Related Sites[edit]

Search

Namespaces

Views

Yusei Kikuchi

Contents

Biographical Information[edit]

Notable Achievements[edit]

Further Reading[edit]

Related Sites[edit]

Full Site Menu

FAQs, Tip & Tricks